How mindful eating improves your health and weight loss

Remember a time when you felt ravenously hungry? 
What did that feel like?   
Where did you feel it in your body?

Now, remember a time when you felt completely stuffed. 
What did that feel like, and where did you feel that in your body?

Good.   
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You have taken the first step in re-setting your appetite - to eat when you are hungry and to stop when you are full.

Many of us are not able to recognise our body's natural signals of REAL hunger and when we are FULL.   So often we are distracted by TV, our phones or conversation, and we don't realise that we have eaten too much until it's too late.

This 20 minute exercise is easily incorporated into your meal time for a few days and can have a big impact on your weight and health - it is called Slow Eating.     

Instead of gobbling down your food, take a few minutes to slow it right down.   
When you chew your food   s l o w l y   - one mouthful at a time - you will start to notice:-
The flavours and textures in your mouth. 
As you become more aware of them, you can listen to your body and its messages
" That's enough peas for now" or "I love those crunchy apples, give me some more" or "Put those potatoes with the eggs". 
Our body has an innate wisdom as to what nutrients it needs and will speak to you when you listen. 
 
Here's how to slow eat:-
 
1.   Turn off all distractions; i.e. tv, music, phone.
2.  Serve up your meal and smell your food - this galvanizes your digestive enzymes into action to help your body break your food down.
3.  Take a deep breath in and do a long sigh on the outbreath.  This puts the body into 'rest and digest' mode - it neutralises the hormones of stress which makes us store fat.
4.  Eat one mouthful at a time and chew your food slowly savouring the flavours and textures.  Put your knife and fork down between each mouthful.
5.  Notice what your body likes and doesn't like.   Listen to it and select foods in the combinations that feel right for you.  It might be that you are attracted to the colour of the food, or the texture (crunchy/mushy/chewy), or it could be the flavour or smell.   

Concentrate on your food and nothing else.  When you eat slowly, your senses get more attuned and give you messages about what to eat. They literally 'draw' you to what the body wants, and make you 'move away' from what it doesn't want.  Make sure you enjoy every mouthful.  As soon as the enjoyment level drops, it's a signal that it's time to stop eating.   
 
Here is the hunger scale
Slightly hungry
Neutral
Pleasantly Satisfied
Full
Stuffed
Bloated
Bloated/Nauseous
 
When your tummy is getting full it releases a hormone called leptin that sends a signal to the brain that you have had enough (you feel satisfied).   With every bite after that, your enjoyment of food will drop, and you will also feel more and more pressure in your tummy area. 
 
This is the time to push your plate away.  Take another breath in and a slow breath out with a sigh.  This reminds your body to rest and digest.   
What if you could push your plate away and trust that you have eaten enough?    

This teaches you how to tune into your own hunger levels.  It resets your body's innate wisdom to recognise when you are getting full and when it is time to stop eating.

If you want to learn more about how to tune into your body, would you like to join me on my Weight Loss Made Easy Course starting in October?  Click here to find out more...


Elayne

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